~ "For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus" (Rev.19:10)

Iran’s Boasts to Annihilate Israel

People and governments all over the world have an opinion about this tiny Jewish State that is surrounded by a huge land mass of Islamic nations with populations that dwarf Israel in size.

But for Muslims of all nationalities, Israel isn’t small enough. They wish for it to shrink to the point of disappearance from the face of the earth.

News sources repeatedly report on proposals to solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Often, with an unbalanced, uninformed, and preposterous premise that Israel is exclusively to blame for not only the plight of the Palestinians, but absence of peace in the entire Middle East.

It’s absolutely astonishing how so many know so little about the real history of Israel—ancient and modern—and yet claim to know so much about what (they think) needs to be done to solve an age-old dilemma between Jews and Arabs.

Other than the United States, just a handful of nations express support for Israel; and, then, only on certain conditions and select occasions. By and large the gamut of those antagonistic toward the only democratic state in the entire Middle East range from toleration (barely) to loathing.

Particularly in Europe, antisemitism has reared its ugly head again. It is a hatred that defies all that is rational. Polls reliably show that most people who dislike or even despise Israel or Jews in general have never been to Israel or have never met a Jew. Even many Palestinians in Israel have never talked to a Jew face to face. Instead they are brainwashed from a young age never to associate with the Jews.

When Muslim nations failed to win four majors wars with Israel (1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973—all of which were provoked by the Arabs), they switched their tactics to terrorist attacks that, for example, killed hundreds of Jews in the 2nd Intifada (2000-2005). Although fewer in number since the Jews built a wall separating much of the non-citizen Palestinian population from Israeli Jews in critical corridors of Judea/Samaria (West Bank), these brutal attacks continue to this very day.

Another tactic is that of UN Resolutions against Israel, each one sponsored by dozens of Muslim nations to denigrate and delegitimatize Israel by falsely accusing the Jews of “occupying” land that belongs to them in the first place. (See Eye of Prophecy article: United NationsDownsizing of Israel (Resolution 2334) Posted 1-7-17.

Or of apartheid practices of which there are NONE in Israel. I repeat for emphasis: Absolutely none. There are several dramatic differences between Israel’s democratic state and an apartheid state … as South Africa once was. Most obvious is the fact that Israel allows its’ minority Arab population (Israeli Arabs who are citizens) not only to vote, but to serve in both the national and local governments. You would NEVER find that in an apartheid state.

(One of many signs posted in the once apartheid South Africa. No such equivalent signs in Israel, nor any other “signs” of apartheid)

Yet Israel’s enemies know how to influence the court of global opinion by repeatedly accusing Israel of non-existent abuses, understanding that the world-at-large is prone to believe these lies if told often enough. People love the “underdog.” So much so that they don’t want to be bothered with the evidence, either historical or contemporary facts on the ground. And they conveniently forget that the Jews were the underdogs for centuries. Not only treated like dogs but slaughtered like sheep in the millions, i.e. Holocaust. The State of Israel is the reason that this must/will NEVER AGAIN happen.

The Sinister Strategy of BDS

A strategy to impair Israel that has recently gained even more momentum is that of economic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Although there are differing opinions regarding the impact of this insidious plot to bring Israel to its economic knees, one thing is crystal clear: it negatively affects Palestinian workers as much or more than Israeli businesses.

Reason: Thousands of Palestinian are employed by Israel companies throughout Israel, including the West Bank (Judea/Samaria). For example: BDS actions forced the Israeli business SodaStream to relocate out of the West Bank, which, in turn, cost over 100 Palestinians their jobs. Even worse: if Israelis companies are adversely affected, the majority of BDS activists couldn’t care less about Palestinians losing their livelihood. They’ve harmed Israel; that’s all that matters to them.

Fortunately, BDS from the few in the United States who support this deplorable practice was dealt a decisive defeat in the recent July 23, 2019 bill passed by the US House of Representatives … with an overwhelming vote of 398 to 17 (18 abstentions). Although House bill 246 was a non-binding resolution, it sent a clear message that the United States will not condone attempts to shut down Israeli businesses in the democratic sovereign State of Israel.

And, if you’ve kept abreast of the constant publicity generated by three newly elected members of the House of Representatives (Ilhan Omar/Minnesota; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/New York; and Rashida Tlaib/Michigan), you know that they have spent most of their congressional time in office condemning Israel. At the expense of what they otherwise should be doing that would truly benefit their constituents.

Ironically, Omar and Tlaib have planned a trip to Israel to “learn more” (their words) about the situation over there. By all rights, Israeli authorities should deny visa entrance to someone (anyone) who harbors and overtly expresses hostility toward Israelis and who radically supports the BDS movement against Israel. However, it appears that Israel will allow them to make this trip—which I agree with.

Although it’s highly unlikely that they will visit Israel with an open mind, it certainly wouldn’t hurt for them to see the objective truth of what this miraculously reborn nation is all about. It is a Jewish State with equal rights for ALL its citizens—which includes some 1.8 million Israeli Arabs. Plus, giving wide administrative control for non-citizen Palestinians in the West Bank (Palestinian Authority) and the Gaza Strip (Hamas). In fact, Israel withdrew all Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip 13 years ago.

And yet these US Congresswomen have claimed that Israeli Jews are occupying “Palestinian land” including the Gaza Strip. Indeed, they need to learn more!

(Left to right: Rashida Tlaib; Ilhan Omar; Alexandria Cortez; Ayanna Pressley … Pressley did not vote against the anti-BDS House bill, but still criticizes Israel frequently)

Wiping Israel From the Face of the Earth

UN Resolutions and BDS are non-violent but nonetheless perfidious plots hatched by Israel’s enemies (of which there are hundreds of millions particularly in Islamic nations) to disrupt and wear down the State of Israel … politically, culturally, and economically. As insidious as they are, these tactics are not (even close to) the main threat to Israel. That “honor” belongs to Iran. A rogue nation that for 40 years now has repeatedly called for, “Death to Israel.” Also, “Death to America.” And not just most of the populace but from high ranking officials and the top tyrant himself … the Ayatollah.

Beginning with this Islamic Regime’s overthrow of its government in 1979 and taking of dozens of US Embassy hostages for 444 days; to recent acts of aggression—shooting down an American drone and seizing a British oil tanker. Knowing that the Iranian military could never defeat the United States in war, its politicians, religious leaders, and high-echelon military personnel have instead threatened to retaliate against Israel if the United States initiates any military action against Iran.

Moreover, these threats against Israel are not just proportional responses, they are all-out swaggers pledging and predicting Israel’s rapid destruction at the hands of Iran’s lethal arsenal. Of course, this is based on Iran’s presumption that it is a super-power with a superior fighting force capable of an easy victory over the Israelis!

As a result of Israel’s periodic air attacks against Iranian military bases in Syria (past couple of years) to halt the building of even more precision-guided missiles aimed at Israel, Iran has intensified its arrogant threats to erase Israel from the map of the world. And, it isn’t just Iran. It’s their puppet terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad of the Gaza Strip whose only purpose in life is to kill as many Jews as it will take to eliminate Israel.

At one of the many protest marches at the Gaza-Israeli border fences, Hamas senior leader Fathi Hammad crowed on July 14, 2019 that, “There are Jews everywhere. We must attack every Jew on planet Earth! We must slaughter and kill them, with Allah’s help. We will lacerate and tear them to pieces.”

This vile language explicitly expresses the real agenda of radical Islam; yet, it is also silently endorsed by hundreds of millions of so-called moderate Muslims world-wide. To illustrate the duplicity of Israel’s enemies, both within Israel and without: While spewing even more abhorrent rhetoric (as we just read) against the Jews, Hamas’s “diplomatic hand” is now attempting to sway world opinion under the pretense of considering a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem rather than its sworn objective (found in Hamas’ Charter) to destroy Israel.

At about the same time that Hammad uttered these ugly threats against all Jews, Hamas’ main leader Ismail Haniyeh was being interviewed by a Turkish journalist in Istanbul. The post-interview headlines in Turkish news sources read: “Hamas does not oppose the establishment of a (Palestinian) state on the 1967 borders.”

As I’ve written in several prior articles, the only two-state solution that Palestinians will agree to is Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 Six-Day War truce lines … which are NOT borders at all. This would dangerously weaken Israel’s ability to defend its citizens from what is essentially a high-ground advantage of a Palestinian State along those armistice lines.

Palestinian conditions (non-negotiable) for a Two-State solution—which would create more problems that it would solve—is endorsed by nearly all nations of the European Union and, of course, by every Muslim nation on earth. Included in these absurd demands is the “right of return” for millions of so-called Palestinian refugees, which effectively would spell the end of the sovereign state of Israel. Another major pre-condition for a Palestinian State is its capital in the eastern part of Jerusalem—dividing Israel’s eternal capital city. Two capitals in one city is illogical, if not ridiculous; when several West Bank cities would do just fine, especially Ramallah where the Palestinian Authority is currently headquartered.

Returning to Ismail Haniyeh’s interview, Turkish news headlines gave the deceptive impression he was now in favor of some sort of agreement between his Hamas (terrorist) organization and Israel. With the implication that even Hamas, the most militant of the two Palestinian organizations within Israel (the other is, of course, the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank), was willing to talk peace with Israel.

In fact, what Haniyeh said was: “Hamas is not opposed to the establishment of a state on the 1967 borders but insists on not recognizing the Israeli occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories.”

What Haniyeh means when he refers to, the rest of the Palestinian territories is essentially all Israel. They do not recognize the Israel’s national sovereignty nor even Israel’s right to exist. Which is why Palestinians have flatly turned down the creation of their own state. Not once, or twice, or three times. But a TOTAL OF FOUR TIMES, the latest of which was in 2008. They simply cannot tolerate the thought of a Palestinian State alongside Israel; rather, they want a state to replace Israel.

Here is another quote by Haniyeh in that interview: “We often resort to peaceful and popular resistance. This does not mean, however, that we have given up our armed resistance against Israel.”

When he says Hamas often resorts to peaceful resistance, he obviously means as a last resort.

For that matter what is peaceful to Haniyeh and most Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (also in the West Bank) is anything but. If anyone thinks the rioting at the Gaza/Israeli border is peaceful—hurling rocks, firebombs, explosive devices, and burning kites at the IDF with repeated attempts to knock down the fence to allow hundreds of Palestinians to attack Israeli communities—then they’d definitely be interested in some choice swamp land in Florida sight unseen … at a reasonable price, of course.

In an online Gatestone Institute article posted July 22, 2019 entitled, The Hamas-Iran Plan to Eliminate Israel; written by Bassam Tawil (a Turkish journalist who writes mostly about his native country but often in the context of his firm belief that the state of Israel has an undeniable right to exist), he offers his own paraphrased assessment of what Ismail Haniyeh was really saying to the Turkish press and to the world at large.

“If we are offered a Palestinian state next to Israel, we will not say no. While we will take whatever Israel gives us, we will never recognize its right to exist. We will use the state as a launching pad to liberate all Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.”

Liberating “Palestine” (a state that doesn’t even exist) from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River is, in fact, an official slogan of Hamas. Often repeated by most Palestinians, as well as representatives from many Muslim nations.

Oh, and did I mention that Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives still (periodically) launch rockets and mortars into nearby Israeli towns, some of which have resulted in Israeli casualties. And that both non-citizen Palestinians from the West Bank and a few Israel-Arab citizens continue to stab and shoot Israeli Jews, and slam cars into them—men, women, and children.

See Eye of Prophecy articles: The Real Reason for Palestinian Terrorism (posted 9-30-17); Palestinian Refugees … Are They Really Refugees? (1-27-18); “The Right of Return” … For Palestinians or Jews? (4-7-18); Judea/Samaria & Gaza Strip / Who Has Sovereignty? (5-11-19).

Iran’s Relentless Rants Against Israel

In the same timeframe of Ismail Haniyeh’s interview with a Turkish journalist, Hamas sent a delegation to Iran, presumably to ask for more funding to accomplish their (mutual) warped plot of obliterating Israel.

Listen to the most recent boast from Iran, this one from Iranian National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Chairman Mojtaba Zolnour: “If the US attacks us, only half an hour will remain of Israel’s lifespan.”

Here is an excerpt to include Iranian intimidations of Israel from the previously referenced article of Bassam Tawil (in italics):

In another threat earlier this year, the second-in-command of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that Iran will obliterate Israel if it starts a war, and the Israelis will not even be able to bury their dead. “Our strategy is (to wipe) Israel (off) the world’s political geography and Israel seems to be approaching this reality by its mischief,” Brigadier General Hosseln Salami told reporters in Tehran. If Israel “does anything that leads to a new war, certainly it will be (the kind of war) that will result in their elimination, and the occupied territories will be retaken. Israelis won’t even have a cemetery in Palestine to bury their corpses.”

It’s profoundly clear that President Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the outrageous 2015 Nuclear Deal with Iran that was all take by and no give from the Iranians, plus the renewed economic sanctions has substantially stifled Iran’s economy. Which is a positive development. Because it’s equally transparent to the United States and even to the other five signatory nations to this agreement (Great Brittan, Germany, France, China and Russia … though they won’t acknowledge that the deal has benefited only Iran plus the fact that in a few more years, Iran can start producing higher grade uranium necessary for nuclear warheads) that much of Iran’s income for the past few years has been diverted to its blatant funding of terrorist cells in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza.

Bassam Tawil’s assessment of Hamas’ intensified relationship with Iran is accurately expressed in the final paragraph of his article: “The most effective way to stop Hamas from carrying out its plan to ‘slaughter’ every Jew is by increasing international sanctions and other means of pressure on Iran—before it is too late.”

In the context of Hamas-Iran’s bashing of Israel on a regular basis, I might as well include a recent comment from Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who also hates Israel. Said Erdogan:

“Whoever is on the side of Israel, let everyone know that we are against them.”

If you think about it, this is incredible. Here is another leader of a prominent nation whose view of and diplomatic relations with entire countries depends almost exclusively whether they’re on Israel’s side or not! On the other hand, it is another pronounced prophetic development signaling the last days of the end times. In this instance: global attention on Israel.

Since Israel’s rebirth in 1948 and especially the reclamation of all Israel including Jerusalem as her eternal capital in Israel’s astonishing Six-Day War victory of 1967, end-times prophecy has unfolded with kaleidoscope intensity and flash-point frequency.

The Startling Correlation Between Biblical Last Days Prophecy & Iran’s Boasts

Several Eye of Prophecy articles have been posted on the Gog/Magog invasion of Israel. For example: Gog/Magog’s Clock Is Ticking, Ticking… (posted 6-16-18).

In just the past 4-5 years, we’ve witnessed military presence in the war-torn nation of Syria of the three prominent nations that will lead this huge confederacy—Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Syria is Israel’s adjacent (unfriendly) neighbor to the northeast. During that span, Iran has ratcheted its malevolent posturing against Israel in both frequency and severity.

(Russia also has several military bases in Syria, and Turkey has sent troops into Syria more than once)

“O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God. Don’t you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don’t you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up? They devise crafty schemes against your people (the Jews); they conspire against your precious ones. ‘Come,’ they say, ‘Let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence’” (Psalm 83:1-4, parenthesis mine, emphasis added).

This passage related to nations surrounding Israel during Biblical times. However, based on many other Old Testament passages depicting the fate of certain Gentile nations that harm or even threatened to harm Israel in the final generation–beginning with Germany’s devastating defeat during World War II–Psalm 83 extends, at least in principle and pattern, to modern-day nations antagonistic toward Israel.

In a moment, we’ll see how this will play out in the Gog/Magog alliance found in Ezekiel Chapters 38 & 39.

When leaders of a somewhat powerful nation like Iran spew venomous threats that are virtually identical to those cited in the end-times prophecies of Scripture, it’s that much more evident that we are living in the last days of the end-times.

So, too, are the amazing correlations that ironically (God’s poetic justice) depict nations hostile toward Israel suffering the same fate as they audaciously assert will happen to Israel. When nations boast that they will take out Israel, they are taking on the true and living God—who has promised that Israel would once again be a sovereign nation and the Jews would return to their Promised Land. Both of which are taking place before our 20th & 21st century eyes.

Scripture is replete with what God has to say about such haughtiness and hostility toward Himself, toward his special possession Israel, and against his chosen people, the Jews.

The Lord has already punished the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through two painful exiles, the second of which lasted nearly 2,000 years. Those years of heartache for the Jewish people were part of God’s discipline to bring them back to him—specifically for them to fully grasp that the New Covenant promised by Jeremiah was implemented when their (our) Messiah came to this earth in human form … Jesus of Nazareth. To die for their sins; indeed, the sins of the whole world. To bring redemption to all who believe and receive him as personal Savior. To one day (soon) gloriously return as their King; indeed, King of all kings.

God’s wrath will be poured out against the Gog/Magog alliance in the early part of the Tribulation and against Antichrist’s ten-nation coalition in the last half of the Tribulation because they will seek Israel’s total annihilation. Essentially, they are not now (nor will be then) satisfied with the horrible suffering of the Jews down through the ages, not the least of which was the Holocaust. Their perverse plot is to finish what Hitler started.

God’s Poetic Justice

In general terms, especially applicable to leaders of entire nations, God has issued a stern warning against the kind of pride that mocks Him and His absolute truth as contained in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments. For example:

“God says, ‘At the time I have planned, I will bring justice against the wicked’… I warned the proud, ‘Stop your boasting!’ I told the wicked, ‘Don’t raise your fists! Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance.’ For no one on earth—from east or west, or even from the wilderness—should raise a defiant fist. It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall” (Psalm 75:2-7).

Concerning God’s providential plan for Israel’s restoration, both physical and spiritual, his warnings are even more severe to those people and nations who would dare seek Israel’s destruction (again) and attempted extermination of the Jews (again). This time, God the Father will personally defend and fight for Israel (Gog/Magog invasion of Israel). And, the Son of God, Messiah Jesus, will return to earth to personally fight alongside the Jews in the epic battle for Jerusalem (Zechariah 12 & 14; refer to Eye of Prophecy article: Armageddon & Messiah’s Return … An Amazing Sequence of Events, published 2-3-18).

Followed by the marvelous Millennial Reign of Messiah Jesus from Jerusalem.

Listen, as God speaks to Israel:

“Yes, says the Lord, I will do mighty miracles for you, like those I did when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt. All the nations of the world will stand amazed at what the Lord will do for you. They will be embarrassed at their feeble power. They will cover their mouths in silent awe, deaf to everything around them. Like snakes crawling from their holes, they will come out to meet the Lord our God. They will fear him greatly, trembling in terror at his presence” (Micah 7:15-17).

Along with Russia and Turkey, the terrorist state of Iran will experience terror like they’ve never known. They will see once and for all who is God and who is not.

What the Lord will do to Iran and its Gog/Magog allies will stun the world in its scope and severity. It will give a whole new meaning to poetic justice. Before we read part of this spectacular scene, I’m going to repeat the boast of a top-Iranian military officer quoted earlier in this week’s post.

“…it will be the kind of war that will result in their (Israel’s) elimination, and the occupied territories will be retaken. Israelis won’t even have a cemetery in Palestine (he contemptibly still refers to Israel as Palestine) to bury their corpses” (parenthesis mine).

Considering what Russia, Turkey, Iran, and other smaller nations intend to do to Israel, God’s unilateral (Israel will not need to lift a military finger in this awesome display of God’s power) response is one of pure absolute justice. Moreover, it’s the beginning of the Lord’s final judgment on a world gone mad with power, persecution (of Jews and Christians), and perverted pleasure-seeking people not seen since violence and immorality saturated the earth before the world-wide flood of Noah’s time.

Now let’s see what the God of the Bible has to say. Warning: it’s not a pretty sight.

Read with me:

“But this is what the Sovereign Lord says: When Gog invades the land of Israel, my fury will boil over! In my jealousy and blazing anger, I promise a mighty shaking in the land of Israel on that day … and all the people on earth will quake in terror at my presence. Mountains will be thrown down; cliffs will crumble; walls will fall to the earth. I will summon the sword against you on all the hills of Israel, says the Sovereign Lord. Your men will turn their swords against each other. I will punish you and your armies with disease and bloodshed; I will send torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and burning sulfur! In this way, I will show my greatness and holiness, and I will make myself known to all the nations of the world. Then they will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 38:18-23).

*Note: This devastation of mountains and cliffs and walls crumbling will take place world-wide. That and the ensuing graphics (such as fire) as well as the world’s reaction are quite like the 6th & 7th seal judgments as found in Revelation 6:12-17 and 7:3-5. Which is one of the reasons the Gog/Magog campaign will take place in the early part of the Tribulation.

Let’s continue with the ruinous results of God’s colossal conquest over an army of nations that will undoubtedly number in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

“You and your army and your allies will all die on the mountains. I will feed you to the vultures and wild animals. You will fall in the open fields, for I have spoken, says the Sovereign Lord. And I will rain down fire on Magog and on all your allies who live safely on the coasts. Then they will know that I am the Lord. In this way, I will make known my holy name among my people of Israel (this will be Israel’s national recognition that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will fight for them as he did in days of old). I will not let anyone bring shame on it. And the nations, too, will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. That day of judgment will come, says the Sovereign Lord. Everything will happen just as I have declared it” (Ezekiel 39:4-8, parenthesis mine).

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: What God says will happen, always happens. What God says he will do, he always does. Period … end of story!

Every person’s eternal destiny depends upon whether they agree with God or not. Whether they meet Messiah Jesus who is The Way (to God); The Truth (of redemption) and The Life (everlasting) as Personal Savior now. Or, after it’s too late, to meet him as Judge.

Time and again in Ezekiel 38 & 39 (and other chapters of Ezekiel), God refers to himself as, The Sovereign Lord. In the context of the arrogant alliance of the Gog/Magog nations, including Iran, the Lord is making it undeniably clear that he alone is God. He is sovereign over all the man-made gods of man-made religions, such as Islam and its “moon-god”, Allah. In fact, other than Russia, other Gog/Magog countries will be predominately Muslim.

Now for the grand finale to demonstrate a reoccurring premise and principle of Scripture, summarized in such axioms as: Be careful what you wish for (think, Iran’s boastful wish to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth). Or, paraphrasing Jesus’s words: whatever or how ever someone unjustly or inappropriately judges someone else (whether individually or as a nation), they will suffer that same judgment.

Before we read God’s description regarding the aftermath of his crushing victory over Gog/Magog (including Iran), remember the Iranian General’s boast that Israelis won’t even be able to bury their dead:

“Then the people in the towns of Israel will go out and pick up your small and large shields, bows and arrows, javelins and spears (think in terms of today’s weaponry), and they will use them for fuel. There will be enough to last them seven years! … They will plunder those who planned to plunder them, and they will rob those who planned to rob them, says the Sovereign Lord.

“And I will make a vast graveyard (not just a graveyard, but a vast one!) for Gog and his hordes in the Valley of the Travelers, east of the Dead Sea. It will block the way of those who travel there, and they will change the name of the place to the Valley of Gog’s Hordes. It will take seven months for the people of Israel to bury the bodies and cleanse the land. Everyone in Israel will help, for it will be a glorious victory for Israel when I demonstrate my glory on that day, says the Sovereign Lord. After seven months, teams of men will be appointed to search the land for skeletons to bury, so the land will be made clean again.Whenever bones are found, a marker will be set up so the burial crews will take them to be buried in the Valley of Gog’s Hordes” (Ezekiel 39:11-15, parenthesis mine, italics for emphasis).

Once again, the name of that conceited Iranian military commander who condescendingly said Israel won’t even have a cemetery to bury their dead: Hosseln Salami. I wouldn’t bet against one of those markers set by Israeli burial crews to be next to the bones of Mr. Salami. Yes, the Rapture and the Great Tribulation to follow is that close at hand.

Summary

The near-future devastating defeat of the Gog/Magog coalition to include the smug Iranians is not the first time that God’s (poetic) justice was on display against Persia … now called Iran.

Once before, some 2,500 years ago, an evil man named Haman—the 2nd most powerful official in Persia—surreptitiously persuaded King Xerxes I to pass a law that ordered the extermination of the Jews throughout the Persian Empire. Jews of today’s world are well acquainted with this episode of their history. The annual feast of Purim is one of the most festive Jewish celebrations both in Israel and world-wide; a memorial to the deliverance of the entire Jewish race (at the time) from certain genocide.

The Lord’s sovereignty (the Sovereign Lord) is overwhelmingly evident throughout this epic story. Beginning with Persian King Xerxes’ highly improbable selection of a Jewish girl to be his queen, from among hundreds of beautiful Persian women. And Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, encouraging her (for such a time as thing) to boldly approach the king and plead for the Jews to be spared from Haman’s malicious plot of annihilation. Followed by more amazingly timed events (seemingly by chance) that were unmistakably orchestrated by the Sovereign Lord.

(Depiction of King Xerxes extending his scepter to approve Queen Esther’s entrance … even the Queen needed permission to see the King)

With the grand but ironic finale: King Xerxes sentencing Haman to death on a 75-foot high sharpened pole on which Haman had intended to impale his archenemy, Mordecai—a Jewish official in the Persian Kingdom. After Haman’s death, Mordecai was appointed to his position, second only to the king!

Now that’s justice!

Moreover, it’s astonishingly similar (ironic) in precedent/parallel fashion to devilish modern-day Iranian boasts to so utterly destroy Israel, that the Israelis won’t even have a place to bury their dead.

As is said: Famous last words!

Things to Ponder

Echoing the lyrics of the departed Christian songwriter/singer Rich Mullins: Our God is an Awesome God! He reigns from heaven above. With wisdom, power, and love; our God is an Awesome God!

Throughout the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Psalms, we read about God’s perfect justice, often in the poetic sense. Both metaphorically and in some divinely designed circumstances … literally: Those who dig pits to capture and bury the Jews, will fall into those very pits. Those who set traps for Israel and the Jews will themselves be caught in those very traps.

And a passage I’ve quoted in more than one prior Eye of Prophecy article:

“The day is near when I, the Lord, will judge all godless nations! As you have done to Israel, so it will be done to you. All your evil deeds will fall back on your own heads. Just as you swallowed up my people on my holy mountain, so you and the surrounding nations will swallow the punishment I pour out on you. Yes, all you nations will drink and stagger and disappear from history. But Jerusalem will become a refuge for those who escape; it will be a holy place. And the people of Israel will come back to reclaim their inheritance” (Obadiah 1:15-17, emphasis added).

Israel’s inheritance of/to the Promised Land was reclaimed in 1948, then expanded in 1967.

Next (soon) on God’s divine agenda is the Rapture of born-again Jew and Gentile believers. A prelude to the Lord’s crushing defeat of Israel’s enemies in two epic battles (Gog/Magog and Armageddon) during the Great Tribulation. This in preparation for the majestic Millennial Reign of Messiah Jesus from Jerusalem.